On Diwali eve, Ranchi becomes Jharkhand's 4th district to get 100% power connectivity

RANCHI: All households in Ranchi district now have access to power supply, chief minister Raghubar Das announced on Tuesday. And by 2019, the CM promised, these households will have 24-hour power supply.

With this, the district became the fourth - after Ramgarh, Bokaro and Dhanbad - to achieve 100% electrification of its households.

"In 67 years, barely four lakh households in Ranchi had access to power supply. In the four years since my government came to power, two lakh additional households got power connectivity," chief minister Raghubar Das said at a foundation stone-laying ceremony for two grid substations in Irba and Silli blocks at Angara, 40 km from here, on Tuesday morning.

Explaining how 100% electrification was achieved, superintending engineer of Jharkhand Bijli Vitaran Nigam Limited (Ranchi) Ajit Kumar told TOI, "To accommodate the additional two lakh households that got power connection, we installed 4,679 new transformers. Now, Ranchi has 8,000 transformers." Another officer said, "We added 3,000 km of local transmission lines and 770 km of new KV lines for proper supply. Besides, 22 new substations are under construction and 25 new feeders are being set up."

Das said it was his government that jump-started the state's power sector. "Previous governments never thought of setting up value-added power plants that could have made Jharkhand, which has huge coal reserves, self-sustainable in the power sector ... Now, we are moving in that direction," the chief minister said.

One such project in the pipeline is a 4,000-MW power plant at Patratu in Ramgarh, work on which the Centre has begun. "We are also working to improve transmission to ensure uninterrupted power supply across the state. Those who say power supply is erratic should take note of the fact that people in Jharkhand at least get power supply now," Das said.

The government also plans on promoting sustainable power generation. "The government will grant a 50% subsidy to those who install solar power generation devices at their houses. We will also purchase excess power generated at Rs 3 per unit. It will be self-sustainable source to meet energy requirements, which you can earn from," Das said. Citing the use of LED bulbs as an instance of better energy consumption choices, Das added, "We managed to save Rs 654 crore since people switched to LED bulbs."

By the end of the year, the government hopes to extend power connectivity to all rural households in the state. Only 38 lakh rural households had power supply access till 2014. About 30 lakh did not. In the last three years, JBVNL statistics show, 10 lakh new connections were given.